The Gilda Stories

The chapter begins with Gilda’s frustration. Since leaving New York, she has begun a new and very successful career as a romance novelist using the pseudonym Abby Bird. She writes in secret from Effie’s small-town New Hampshire cottage, but she is angry to learn that the press has found her out when clandestinely taken videos of her appear on a national magazine show, identifying her as Abby Bird. This is especially uncomfortable because Gilda is mostly alone now: All of the members of her vampire family, including Effie, spend most of their time traveling and communicate with her via antiquated handwritten letters. She also has a treasured ongoing correspondence with a deaf girl named Nadine who is Aurelia’s great-granddaughter. Mostly, however, she has enjoyed her solitude and her time in the outdoors.

A video call from Julius comes through. He finds the public revelation of Gilda’s identity hilarious and a potential opportunity for her to leave her New Hampshire hideout. While Gilda does not find the publicity funny, she is struck by the possibility of moving on. Effie calls next. Gilda shares Julius’s idea, and Effie wholeheartedly agrees, saying “If you’ve been happy in Hampton Falls you can be happy somewhere else” (226). By the end of their conversation, Gilda is convinced and begins preparations to leave. She stages a suicide for the press to find by leaving a set of clothes folded on a nearby cliff above the ocean.

The minute she returns to the cottage, she can tell someone else is inside, and she quickly discovers a journalist hiding in the dark. Gilda takes his blood and plants a story in his mind that Abby Bird is dead and has left her estate to the GrassRoots Coalition, the activist group that Julius is part of. As the chapter ends, she starts walking south with purpose, thinking perhaps she will join the activists or go visit Nadine.